The knife thrower's assistant
The knife thrower’s assistant is compared to “a martyr on a cross” after a number of knives have been thrown at her. This illustrates that the audience secretly expects her to be harmed and that they want her to sacrifice herself for their pleasure.
The spy
When a man follows some girls to find out what the members of the sisterhood do at night, he is compared to “a spy in a late-night movie.” This illustrates his secret approach, which may also include cliched methods which would be easy to predict by the girls, causing his mission to fail.
The members of the sisterhood
Because the townspeople cannot figure out what the members of the sisterhood do at night, the narrator describes them as “a race apart, wild creatures of the night with streaming hair and eyes of fire,” which indicates that they are considered evil and witch-like.
Harter
Apparently, Harter has had many affairs in the past because he “could have slipped out of her life as easily as you pulled off a sock at the end of the day, leaving it a bit wrinkled, a little the worse for wear, but no more.” This indicates that leaving a woman is as ordinary for him as taking off a sock, and that he used them.
The department store
The successful department store in “The Dream of the Consortium” is compared to “ the kind of museum where a room full of old fire engines opens into a hall lined with glass cases containing owls, herons, and sandpipers.” These unexpected transitions keep the level of anticipation and surprise high, and therefore the customers stay alert and engaged.
